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Last week’s poll seemed to bring a lot of opinions as to where teams should have been, especially towards the top of the poll. And that’s good. That’s the point of this whole thing is to drive a conversation and get people talking.

Another three weeks is under our belt, and while many of us were watching people jump and swim and run and flip and do all sorts of stuff for some chocolate covered gold coins that you wear around your neck, there was a lot of footy going on and it affected the positions.

Over a decade ago, I fell in love with a sport that I had never heard of and happened to discover.

It was unlike anything that I knew but integrated all the traditional sports that I grew up playing. As a single mother and recent college graduate, joining the Arizona Hawks fulfilled my craving to be a part of a team. Alongside my sister (by choice, not birth), now my coach, I played my first game at the 2005 USAFL Nationals in the inaugural women's division.

The USA Revolution’s journey to Melbourne and next year’s International Cup championship continues with a camp in Philadelphia next weekend. Dozens of prospective American players will make their way to the City of Brotherly Love, in search of being one of those selected by coach Tom Ellis and his staff as one of those to represent their country against some of the world’s best footy players.

Before its name was changed to Salem in 1850 by politician William H. Williams, Oregon’s capital was known as Chimikiti, a word from the Kalapuya language meaning “meeting place”. Nestled in the WIlliamette Valley region, Salem provides one of the most picturesque backdrops to just about anything.

It is appropriate, therefore, that some of the best teams in the USAFL make Salem their “chimikiti” for 2016, bringing together teams building towards the future, and towards a championship.

The winds of winter are being felt in Australia, while the heat of summer is broiling the great meadows of the American continent.

The winds of change on the USAFL Top 20 poll, however, weren’t much of a gust so much as they were a gentle breeze, not unlike the Fremantle Doctor cooling down the West Coast. There weren’t many games played in voting round four, but the ripples from a great day in Yonkers were felt up and down the ladder, helping even teams who didn’t even take to the field.

There is a cliché about cream rising to the top in big events. On a hot day in Yonkers, New York, the crème was curdled by 90 degree temperatures, but it still rose, steadily, mightily, and with authority. At the end of it all, through sweat and determination, the New York Magpies and Baltimore-Washington Eagles took with them the cups signifying them as Champions of the Eastern Regional Tournament for 2016.

For weeks, this was circled as an important weekend on the women’s football calendar.

In all, there were two separate competitions: an 18-a-side match and a 12-a-side round robin on Saturday, followed by the USA Freedom Training Camp on Sunday morning. Not only were 50 or so women assembled at Tibbetts Brook Park competing for club pride, but many were playing for a chance at the national team ahead of next year’s International Cup in Melbourne.

“In New York; Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, There's nothing you can't do / Now you're in New York; These streets will make you feel brand new, Big lights will inspire you.” – Jay-Z, Empire State of Mind.

New Yorkers will tell you that their city is the center of the universe. With 9,000,000 people, a culture, language and life of its own, they’re probably right. New York is proud, modern, bustling, unforgiving, and beneath all of its grit and noise and brusque beats a passionate heart.

The wind is a fickle thing. It kicks up at unexpected times, it varies in strength and direction at its own whim, and sometimes it can completely change the course of where you’re going.

A strong wind greeted the over 200 combatants that gathered at the Indianapolis World Sports Park on June 11th for the 2016 USAFL Central Regional Tournament. It accompanied relentless temperatures that topped out somewhere in the mid 90’s Fahrenheit, and wreaked havoc with the plans drawn up by the 12 teams that took part in front of a worldwide internet audience.

This past weekend in Indianapolis, I was needled a lot for the number of Game of Thrones references I put in the first two poll recaps. I mean, no one was losing their head or anything, and it’s in Stark contrast to all of the other things I write about the league. I think it was just a few people deciding to Arya their grievances.

Catch all of the excitement of the 2016 USAFL Central Regional Tournament LIVE on Go Live Sports Cast!

We'll have coverage from nine games this Saturday, June 11th, starting at 9am EDT. Direct from the Indianapolis World Sports Park, featuring matchups from all three divisions. Our own Brian Barrish will be on the call and guide you through a full day of Aussie Rules football at its very best.

While the USAFL and American Aussie Rules was born from teams in the Midwest, it was cultivated in many outposts across the country. Southern California is one of those places, and over the past two decades has produced some of the best footballers and clubs the league has seen.